Did a Hunter Leave a Dead Bear in Central Park to Teach New Yorkers a Lesson?

Yesterday a dead bear cub turned up in Central Park with some sort of horrible injury–the cops aren’t saying what. I have to wonder if a hunter had something to do with it given how prominently the fantasy of a wild predator released in Central Park to teach liberals a lesson figures in the rhetoric of hunters.

The dead bear cub placement comes just two weeks after another hunting advocate dream come true: the NJ first fatal bear attack in NJ since 1852. I’ve been to the meeting in New Jersey over bear hunts as a journalist. Hunters scream that they need to shoot bears lest some naive suburbanite get killed. They claim that anyone who is against hunting is naive and if liberals should have to live with them in their backyards. (The bears in New Jersey tend to be in the more rural, conservative areas.)

What many New Yorkers may not realize is how frequently a wild predator released in Central Park comes up in the fantasy and arguments . Here’s a satirical post satirical post about petitioning the Wildlife Service to release wolves in Central Park since that was part of their natural habitat. But both Wyoming and Alaska lawmakers have seriously considered the joke proposal.

Who has access to a bear cub to plant in Central Park? Hunters and people who try to keep bears as pets. Hunting season in New Jersey isn’t until December–which is timed so pregnant females aren’t killed, which, by the way, is the opposite of what you would do to cut a population. It’s entirely possible that someone who kept the bear cub as a pet dumped it there. But why? If you don’t want to draw attention to a dead animal, then Central Park should be your last choice to dump it.

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